Phenotypic responses to oil pollution in a poeciliid fish

Pollution damages ecosystems around the globe and some forms of pollution, like oil pollution, can be either man-made or derived from natural sources. Despite the pervasiveness of oil pollution, certain organisms are able to colonise polluted or toxic environments, yet we only have a limited understanding of how they are affected by it. Here, we analysed phenotypic responses to oil pollution in guppies (Poecilia reticulata) living in oil-polluted habitats across southern Trinidad. We analysed body-shape and life-history traits for 352 individuals from 11 independent populations, six living in oil-polluted environments (including the naturally oil-polluted Pitch Lake), and five stemming from non-polluted habitats. Based on theory of, and previous studies on, responses to environmental stressors, we predicted guppies from oil-polluted waters to have larger heads and shallower bodies, to be smaller, to invest more into reproduction, and to produce more but smaller offspring compared to guppies from non-polluted habitats. Contrary to most of our predictions, we uncovered strong population-specific variation regardless of the presence of oil pollution. Moreover, guppies from oil-polluted habitats were characterised by increased body size; rounder, deeper bodies with increased head size; and increased offspring size, when compared to their counterparts from non-polluted sites. This suggests that guppies in oil-polluted environments are not only subject to the direct negative effects of oil pollution, but might gain some (indirect) benefits from other concomitant environmental factors, such as reduced predation and reduced parasite load. Our results extend our knowledge of organismal responses to oil pollution and highlight the importance of anthropogenic pollution as a source of environmental variation. They also emphasise the understudied ecological heterogeneity of extreme environments. [Display omitted] •Crude-oil pollution negatively impacts (aquatic) ecosystems worldwide.•Guppies have colonised several oil-polluted habitats in southern Trinidad.•We found limited evidence for negative effects of oil pollution on guppy phenotypes.•Guppy phenotypes instead suggest positive, indirect effects of pollution.•Some species might be able to exploit polluted environments to their advantage.